Union dominate Revolution, advance to Open Cup semifinals

The Union’s Sheanon Williams, right, battles New England’s Lee Nguyen, left, for the ball in Tuesday’s game at PPL Park. The Union won, 2-0, to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup. (Times Staff/ROBERT J. GURECKI).

CHESTER — The insertion of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup into an otherwise hectic MLS schedule can elicit different reactions from teams.

For a squad like the Philadelphia Union, it can be a proving ground to overturn spells of futility in the league and generate momentum. For the New England Revolution Tuesday night, the Open Cup appeared a nuisance to be disposed of as quickly as possible … and at about half-speed.

That’s how two clubs with drastically different fortunes in MLS this season arrived at a 2-0 win for the Union in the quarterfinals of the domestic cup competition in a game delayed by almost an hour due to hazardous weather.

Goals by Conor Casey and Sebastien Le Toux on either side of halftime heralded an excellent effort from the Union, who were miles ahead of the Revolution in terms of energy and effort in the game.

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The win advances to the Union to the Open Cup semifinals for the second time in club history and puts them two wins from the organization’s first trophy. It’s also just the second win for the Union in six all-time Open Cup dates with MLS opposition. The Union are 5-0 against lower-division sides.

The Union will travel to meet the winner of FC Dallas and NASL side Carolina Railhawks in a quarterfinal to be played Wednesday. The semifinal date will be either Aug. 12 or 13.

The Union earned the semifinal date in by continuing to prove they are taking the competition very seriously.

“It’s huge for the club,” midfielder Danny Cruz said. “We’ve been trying to continue to preach — and Jim (Curtin) has — that two more games and we get the first trophy this club has ever had. And we take that very seriously. … We all want it, I can tell you that. We came in here before the game, and we’re taking this tournament very seriously. We’re almost there.”

The game Tuesday was delayed in the 61st minute when gale-force winds blew squalls of dust off the parking lot and into the River End of the stadium. Both teams were sent inside and the stands evacuated due during a lightning delay of 58 minutes before the teams returned to the field.

Curtin’s task during the break was to keep his team loose and focused on the task of holding a two-goal lead amid the uncertainty of a weather delay. With that adversity handled, the Union were able to keep just their fourth clean sheet of the season in all competitions.

“I don’t want to call that a comfortable win, but it felt comfortable,” Curtin said. “We felt comfortable that we weren’t going to give up a goal.”

The score wasn’t wholly indicative of the home side’s control of play. The Union ran rampant in the first half, generating nearly a dozen chances and producing some of their best attacking soccer of the season.

The scoring payoff came after nine minutes, when Casey exploited a napping New England defense. Out of seemingly nothing when Sheanon Williams delivered a hopeful free kick from 20 yards inside the Union’s half, Casey latched onto a bounding ball as the Revolution defenders raised their hands appealing for offside.

Casey still had plenty of work to do, taking a touch around goalkeeper Brad Knighton down the left channel and finishing with a shot from an acute angle off the inside of the right post.

The Union had myriad other opportunities in the first half, most generated by dangerous movement between Maidana, Le Toux and Cruz. The closest the Union came to a second goal in the first half was courtesy of Williams in the 42nd minute. A cross from Fabinho off a corner taken short found Williams near the penalty spot, and his header thumped the underside of the crossbar.

The next goal for the Union was a gift from former Union goalie Knighton, who saw Le Toux’s free kick delivery in the 47th minute squirt between his gloves and into the net. On a curling free-kick delivery — drawn by Maidana, who was sent sprawling by AJ Soares some 20 seconds after he entered the fray — from 20 yards near the left sideline, Knighton made a mess of what became Le Toux’s seventh goal in seven games across all competitions.

The tally is Le Toux’s 14th career U.S. Open Cup goal, per the competition’s website, breaking a four-way tie to make him the leading scorer in the MLS era of the competition.

“I don’t really think about it,” Le Toux said. “I even thought before that I scored more than the number that was said. I think I scored more, so I think you should check your stats, guys.”

The Revolution’s first-half performance was sufficiently lackluster to warrant two changes at halftime, introducing Soares for struggling defender Stephen McCarthy and Diego Fagundez for Saer Sene. (Sene came nearest to a Revs goal in the first 45 minutes, having an effort cleared off the line by Maurice Edu in the 11th and side-footing a shot off the post in the 39th.)

Fagundez helped New England come to terms with the game, including some good movement with Steve Neumann that led to a shot by the New Hope native that Zac MacMath did well to kick out a leg and deny in the 53rd minute. MacMath, who wasn’t tested in the first half, got his palms to a drive by Teal Bunbury three minutes earlier on a quickly-taken free kick.

Neither team generated much beyond a steady stream of yellow cards after the game resumed. Just for good measure, Soares added a second yellow in stoppage time, earning an early ticket to the showers and a fitting end to a lackadaisical showing from the Revolution.